Method and system for supporting multiple hybrid automatic repeat request processes per transmission time interval

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus may be used for supporting multiple hybrid automatic repeat request (H-ARQ) processes per transmission time interval (TTI). A transmitter and a receiver may include a plurality of H-ARQ processes. Each H-ARQ process may transmit and receive one TB per TTI. The transmitter may generate a plurality of TBs and assign each TB to a H-ARQ process. The transmitter may send control information for each TB, which may include H-ARQ information associated TBs with the TBs. The transmitter may send the TBs using the associated H-ARQ processes simultaneously per TTI. After receiving the TBs, the receiver may send feedback for each of the H-ARQ processes and associated TBs indicating successful or unsuccessful receipt of each of the TBs to the transmitter. The feedback for multiple TBs may be combined for the simultaneously transmitted H-ARQ processes, (i.e., TBs). When MIMO is implemented, one H-ARQ process may be associated with one MIMO stream, or codeword. The feedback may include a channel quality indicator (CQI) per MIMO stream or codeword. The control information and the feedback may be sent via a layer 1 or layer 2/3 control part.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/735,515, filed Jan. 7, 2013, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13,309,713, filed Dec. 2, 2011, which issued onJan. 8, 2013 as U.S. Pat. No. 8,352,824, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/670,202, filed Feb. 1, 2007, which issuedon Dec. 6, 2011 as U.S. Pat. No. 8,074,137, which claims the benefit ofU.S. Provisional Application Nos. 60/839,462 filed Aug. 23, 2006 and60/765,076 filed Feb. 3, 2006, the contents of which are herebyincorporated by reference.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention is related to wireless communication systems. Moreparticularly, the present invention is related to a method and systemfor supporting multiple hybrid automatic repeat request (H-ARQ)processes per transmission time interval (TTI).

BACKGROUND

The third generation partnership project (3GPP) is currently consideringa long term evolution (LTE) of the 3GPP to provide a new radio accessnetwork for a high-data-rate, low-latency, packet-optimized, improvedsystem with high capacity and better coverage. The LTE is an evolutionof the radio interface, (i.e., evolved universal terrestrial radioaccess (UTRA)), and the radio network architecture, (i.e., evolveduniversal terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN)). Currently,orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and single carrierfrequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) are proposed as airinterface technologies to be used in the downlink and uplinktransmissions respectively.

Meanwhile, 3GPP high speed packet access evolution (HSPA+) is also beingproposed to improve the 3GPP radio access network capacity and coverage.In HSPA+, an evolution of the radio interface and the radio networkarchitecture is being considered. In HSPA+, the air interface technologywill still be based on code division multiple access (CDMA), but with amore efficient physical layer architecture including independentchannelization codes, (distinguished with respect to channel quality),and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO).

H-ARQ has been adopted by several wireless communication standardsincluding 3GPP and 3GPP2. Besides the radio link control (RLC) layer'sautomatic repeat request (ARQ) function, H-ARQ provides improvedthroughput and performance with respect to link adaptation errors andrate control. Asynchronous H-ARQ is used in high speed downlink packetaccess (HSDPA) and synchronous H-ARQ is used in high speed uplink packetaccess (HSUPA).

The conventional H-ARQ scheme is a single H-ARQ scheme in which atransmitter transmits only one transport block (TB) per TTI via oneH-ARQ process. With the introduction of physical resource dependent linkadaptation mechanism in LTE or HSPA+, the conventional H-ARQ signalingmechanism, (i.e., signaling mechanism for single H-ARQ), is notsufficient for transmitting multiple TBs per TTI via multiple H-ARQprocesses.

Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method and system forsupporting multiple H-ARQ processes for transmitting multiple TBssimultaneously per TTI.

SUMMARY

A method and apparatus may be used for supporting multiple H-ARQprocesses per TTI. A transmitter and a receiver may include a pluralityof H-ARQ processes. Each H-ARQ process may transmit and receive one TBper TTI. The transmitter may generate a plurality of TBs and assign eachTB to a H-ARQ process. The transmitter may send control information foreach TB, which may include H-ARQ information associated TBs with theTBs. The transmitter may send the TBs using the associated H-ARQprocesses simultaneously per TTI. After receiving the TBs, the receivermay send feedback for each of the H-ARQ processes and associated TBsindicating successful or unsuccessful receipt of each of the TBs to thetransmitter. The feedback for multiple TBs may be combined for thesimultaneously transmitted H-ARQ processes, (i.e., TBs). The controlinformation and the feedback may be sent via a layer 1 control part orlayer 2 or layer 3 signaling. When MIMO is implemented, one H-ARQprocess may be associated with one MIMO stream, or codeword. Thefeedback may include a channel quality indicator (CQI) per MIMO streamor codeword.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more detailed understanding of the invention may be had from thefollowing description, given by way of example and to be understood inconjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system supporting multiple H-ARQprocesses per TTI in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows transmission of associated control information forsupporting simultaneous multiple H-ARQ processes and transmission ofmultiple TBs per TTI in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3 shows an LTE downlink physical layer frame structure of data andassociated control information; and

FIG. 4 shows an LTE uplink physical layer frame structure for data andassociated control information.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is applicable to any wireless communication systemincluding, but not limited to, LTE and HSPA+ of the 3GPP standard.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system 100 in accordance with the presentinvention. The system 100 includes a transmitter 110 and a receiver 120.The transmitter 110 and the receiver 120 may be a wirelesstransmit/receive unit (WTRU) and a Node-B, or vice versa. Theterminology “WTRU” includes but is not limited to a user equipment (UE),a mobile station, a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, a pager, a cellulartelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a computer, or any othertype of user device capable of operating in a wireless environment. Theterminology “base station” includes but is not limited to a Node-B, asite controller, an access point (AP), or any other type of interfacingdevice capable of operating in a wireless environment.

The transmitter 110 includes a plurality of TB processors 112, aplurality of H-ARQ processes 114 and a control information processor116. Each TB processor 112 receives at least one data flow, (forexample, at least one flow of medium access control (MAC) or RLC packetdata units (PDUs)), and generates at least one TB. Multiple MAC or RLCPDUs may be multiplexed into one TB. In accordance with the presentinvention, multiple TBs may be transmitted simultaneously per TTI usingmultiple H-ARQ processes. The TB processor 112 selects a propertransport format combination (TFC), (i.e., TB size, TB set size, TTI,modulation and coding scheme (MCS), subcarriers, antenna beams,precoding matrix indication (PMI), cyclic redundancy check (CRC) size,redundancy version (RV), data block to radio resource mapping, or thelike), for each of the TBs based on the link condition between thetransmitter 110 and the receiver 120. Preferably, a separate CRC isattached to each TB. Multiple TBs are then transmitted simultaneouslyvia multiple H-ARQ processes 114 per TTI.

The transmitter 110 assigns each of the TBs to a particular H-ARQprocess and transmits multiple TBs via the assigned H-ARQ processessimultaneously per TTI. For example, when several independent spatialdata streams, (i.e., several TBs), are transmitted simultaneously usingMIMO, one H-ARQ process may be assigned to each spatial data stream,(i.e., one TB), and the multiple spatial data streams may be transmittedsimultaneously via multiple H-ARQ processes.

The control information processor 116 is configured to send controlinformation regarding the TBs and the H-ARQ processes associated withthe TBs to the receiver 120 for each TTI. The control informationincludes, but is not limited to, a transport format and resourceindicators (TFRIs) and H-ARQ-related information. The TFRI includes, butis not limited to, information about the dynamic part of the TFC,(including TB set size and modulation and coding scheme) and physicalchannel information, (i.e., channelization codes, subcarriers andantenna beams onto which the TBs are mapped in the corresponding TTI).The H-ARQ information includes, but is not limited to, an H-ARQ processID, an H-ARQ function ID and a redundancy version. The controlinformation may include rate matching parameters for each TB. Ratematching parameters for each TB may be derived from the TFRI.

The receiver 120 includes a plurality of TB processors 122, a pluralityof H-ARQ processes 124 and a control information processor 126. Thecontrol information processor 126 processes control information receivedfrom the transmitter 110. Each H-ARQ process 124 processes one TB perTTI so that multiple TBs may be processed simultaneously per TTI basedon the control information received from the transmitter 110. The H-ARQprocess 124, (or the control information processor 126), sends feedbackto the transmitter 110 indicating successful or unsuccessful receipt ofeach of the TBs, so that the transmitter 110 may retransmit failed TBsbased on the feedback. The TB processors 122 process successfullyreceived TBs based on the control information.

The feedback for multiple TBs may be combined for the simultaneoustransmission of H-ARQ processes, (i.e., TBs). The control informationand the feedback may be sent via a layer 1 control part or layer 2 orlayer 3 signaling. When MIMO is implemented, the feedback may include aCQI per MIMO stream, or codeword.

FIG. 2 shows transmission of associated control information forsupporting simultaneous multiple H-ARQ processes and transmission ofmultiple TBs per TTI in accordance with the present invention. Thetransmitter 110 sends a set of control information 202 a-202 n for theset of TBs transmitted in a common TTI to the receiver 120. The controlinformation 202 a-202 n for the simultaneous H-ARQ transmissions may beconcatenated into a single packet.

The control information 202 a-202 n includes information associatingeach control information 202 a-202 n with a corresponding TB. In aconventional wireless communication system, (i.e., HSDPA and HSUPA),control information for only one TB is transmitted through a separatecontrol channel per TTI, (i.e., a high speed shared control channel(HS-SCCH) in HSDPA and an enhanced dedicated physical control channel(E-DPCCH) in HSUPA), and since only one TB is transmitted per TTI, thereis an implicit association between the transmitted TB and the relatedcontrol information. However, in accordance with the present invention,since multiple TBs are transmitted simultaneously in one TTI throughmultiple H-ARQ processes, the control information 202 a-202 n shouldinclude association information relating each control information 202a-202 n to its associated TB. With the association information, thereceiver 220 unambiguously knows which control information 202 a-202 nis for which TB so that the receiver 220 can use the right controlinformation 202 a-202 n for processing of each TB.

The control information may be transmitted via a layer 1 control part ofone TTI or layer 2 or layer 3 signaling. FIG. 3 shows an LTE downlinkphysical layer subframe 300 for data and associated control information.The subframe 300 includes a data part, (denoted as “D”), and a controlpart, (denoted as “C”). The control information may be included in thecontrol part of the subframe 300. The downlink layer 1 frame structurefor HSPA+ will be based on CDMA technology which may include independentchannelization-codes (distinguished with regard to channel quality) andMIMO. With variable TTI, the control part may contain controlinformation for data block mapped onto several subframes. When MIMO isused, the control information may also contain the allocation of spatialstreams or codewords of different data blocks mapped to different H-ARQfunctions per TTI.

Upon reception of the TBs, the receiver 120 sends separate feedback,(i.e., a positive acknowledgement (ACK) or a negative acknowledgement(NACK)), for each of the TBs. FIG. 2 also shows transmission of feedback204 a-204 n for supporting multiple H-ARQ processes per TTI inaccordance with the present invention. Since multiple feedbacktransmission 204 a-204 n is done for different H-ARQ processes from thereceiver 120 to the transmitter 110, the transmitter 110 will know whichfeedback is for which H-ARQ process, (i.e., TB). For this association,an H-ARQ process ID, (or any other association information), may beincluded in each feedback 204 a-204 n to indicate the correspondingH-ARQ process.

Alternatively, if a pre-defined pattern or sequence of TBs associatedwith H-ARQ processes can be maintained and guaranteed by the transmitter110 and the receiver 120, the feedback 204 a-204 n may be sent accordingto the pre-defined pattern or sequence so that the transmitter 110 knowswhich feedback corresponds to which H-ARQ process. For example, thefeedback may be arranged in either ascending or descending order withrespect to H-ARQ IDs associated with the feedback. This may bedetermined during the call setup. Alternatively, if a TB is successfullyreceived by the receiver 120, the position for that TB's feedback may befilled with a dummy packet with a known pattern so that the transmitter110 may recognize the successful receipt of the TB when the transmitter110 decodes the feedback packet.

The feedback 204 a-204 n may be concatenated into a single packet formultiple H-ARQ processes, (i.e., multiple TBs). The number of feedback,(i.e., the number of ACKs and NACKs), concatenated into a singlefeedback packet is dependent on the number of H-ARQ processes used fortransmission of the TBs. When the number of feedback increases, a morerobust MCS, subcarriers, antenna beams, codewords, or highertransmission power may be used for transmission of the concatenatedfeedback packet. Due to the importance of this feedback packet, a CRCmay be attached to the concatenated feedback packet to improve the errordetection at the transmitter 110.

The feedback may be included in the control part of the physical layerframe. FIG. 4 shows an LTE uplink physical layer subframe 400 structure.The subframe 400 includes a pilot part 402 and a control and data part404. The feedback may be included in the control and data part 404 ofthe subframe 400.

Although the features and elements of the present invention aredescribed in the preferred embodiments in particular combinations, eachfeature or element can be used alone without the other features andelements of the preferred embodiments or in various combinations with orwithout other features and elements of the present invention. Themethods or flow charts provided in the present invention may beimplemented in a computer program, software, or firmware tangiblyembodied in a computer-readable storage medium for execution by ageneral purpose computer or a processor. Examples of computer-readablestorage mediums include a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory(RAM), a register, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices, magneticmedia such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-opticalmedia, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks, and digital versatiledisks (DVDs).

Suitable processors include, by way of example, a general purposeprocessor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, adigital signal processor (DSP), a plurality of microprocessors, one ormore microprocessors in association with a DSP core, a controller, amicrocontroller, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), FieldProgrammable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) circuits, any other type of integratedcircuit (IC), and/or a state machine.

A processor in association with software may be used to implement aradio frequency transceiver for use in a wireless transmit receive unit(WTRU), user equipment (UE), terminal, base station, radio networkcontroller (RNC), or any host computer. The WTRU may be used inconjunction with modules, implemented in hardware and/or software, suchas a camera, a video camera module, a videophone, a speakerphone, avibration device, a speaker, a microphone, a television transceiver, ahands free headset, a keyboard, a Bluetooth® module, a frequencymodulated (FM) radio unit, a liquid crystal display (LCD) display unit,an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display unit, a digital musicplayer, a media player, a video game player module, an Internet browser,and/or any wireless local area network (WLAN) module.

What is claimed is:
 1. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU)comprising: a receiver configured to receive a single control messageincluding control information for a plurality of transport blocks;wherein for each transport block, the control information includes amodulation and coding scheme (MCS) and a redundancy version for thattransport block; wherein the receiver is further configured using thecontrol information, to receive the plurality of transport blocks in asingle transmission time interval (TTI); and a transmitter configured totransmit indications of an acknowledgment (ACK) or negativeacknowledgment (NACK) for each of the plurality of transport blocks;wherein the indications of an ACK or NACK for each of the transportblocks are transmitted in a single packet.
 2. The WTRU of claim 1,wherein a modulation and coding scheme for the single packet is based ona number of indications of an ACK or NACK for each of the transportblocks.
 3. The WTRU of claim 1, wherein a number of antennas used fortransmission of the single packet is based on a number of indications ofan ACK or NACK.
 4. The WTRU of claim 1, wherein the indications of anACK or NACK for each of the transport blocks are transmitted in acontrol portion of physical uplink subframe.
 5. The WTRU of claim 1wherein control information for a first transport block including theMCS and redundancy version for the first transport block is concatenatedwith control information for a second transport block including the MCSand redundancy version for the second transport block.
 6. The WTRU ofclaim 1 wherein the single control message includes a HARQ process IDassociated with at least one of the transport blocks.
 7. The WTRU ofclaim 1 wherein the single control message includes an indication of towhich subcarriers the transport blocks are mapped.
 8. A methodcomprising: receiving, by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), asingle control message including control information for a plurality oftransport blocks; wherein for each transport block, the controlinformation includes a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and aredundancy version for that transport block; using the controlinformation to receive the plurality of transport blocks in a singletransmission time interval (TTI); and transmitting indications of anacknowledgment (ACK) or negative acknowledgment (NACK) for each of theplurality of transport blocks; wherein the indications of an ACK or NACKfor each of the transport blocks are transmitted in a single packet. 9.The method of claim 8, wherein a modulation and coding scheme for thesingle packet is based on a number of indications of an ACK or NACK. 10.The method of claim 8, wherein a number of antennas used fortransmission of the single packet is based on a number of indications ofan ACK or NACK.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein the indications of anACK or NACK for each of the transport blocks are transmitted in acontrol portion of physical uplink subframe.
 12. The method of claim 8wherein control information for a first transport block including theMCS and redundancy version for the first transport block is concatenatedwith control information for a second transport block including the MCSand redundancy version for the second transport block.
 13. The method ofclaim 8 wherein the single control message includes a HARQ process IDassociated with at least one of the transport blocks.
 14. The method ofclaim 8 wherein the single control message includes an indication of towhich subcarriers the transport blocks are mapped.